brother Hugh, who was trained there for the church. With a correct and educated taste Mure 'delyted much in building and planting,' and he 'reformed the whole house [at Rowallan] exceidingly.' Previous to his father's death he gave much time to literature, but subsequently he was drawn into active life, when he showed an excellent public spirit. In 1643 he was a member of parliament at Edinburgh, and he was on the 'Committee of Warre' for the sheriffdom of Ayr in 16-14. In the same year he engaged in England in several of the encounters between the royalist and the parliamentary forces. On 2 July he was wounded at Marston Moor, and in August he was at Newcastle, where for a time he commanded his regiment. Of his last ten years there is no record, but the book of his 'House' (in a paragraph supplementing his own story) shows that he was 'pious and learned, and had an excellent vaine in poyesie,' and that he 'lived Religiouslie and died Christianlie' in 1657. Before 1615 he married Anna Dundas, daughter of Dundas of Newliston, by whom he had eleven children; and he married, secondly, Jane Hamilton, lady Duntreath, who bore two sons and two daughters. He was succeeded by his son, Sir William, a well-known covenanter, upon the death of whose son in 1700, without a male heir, the title became extinct.
Mure left numerous manuscript verses, including a Latin tribute to his grandfather, an English 'Dido and Æneas' from the 'Æneid,' and two religious poems, 'The Joy of Tears' and 'The Challenge and Reply.' In the 'Muses' Welcome,' 1617, there is a poetical address by Mure to King James when at Hamilton. In 1628 he translated—'invected in English Sapphics'—Boyd of Trochrig's Latin 'Hecatombe Christiana,' to which he appended a poem on 'Doomsday.' In 1629 appeared his 'True Crucifixe for True Catholikes,' 12mo, Edinburgh. This poem, Mure's most ambitious effort, is ingenious and interesting, but unquestionably heavy. About 1639 he cleverly paraphrased the Psalms, of which Principal Baillie of Edinburgh highly approved (letter from Westminster Assembly, 1 Jan. 1644, quoted by Lyle). The general assembly of the church of Scotland commended Mure's Psalms to the attention of that committee which chose the version of Rous for congregational use. In his latter days Mure wrote the quaint and valuable 'Historie and Descent of the House of Rowallane,' edited by the Rev. W. Mure, 1825. In T. Lyle's 'Ancient Ballads and Songs, chiefly from Tradition, MSS., and Scarce Works,' a number of Mure's miscellaneous poems occur, including examples in heroic couplet, two addresses to his wife, and several sonnets excellent in sentiment and creditable in structure.
[Historie and Descent of the House of Rowallane; Memoir in Lyle's Ancient Ballads and Songs; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
MURE, WILLIAM (1718–1776), baron of the Scots exchequer, was eldest son and successor to William Mure of Caldwell in Ayr and Renfrewshire, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir James Stewart of Coltness, lord advocate, and widow of James Maxwell of Blawarthill. He was born late in 1718. His father dying in April 1722, he was brought up at home by his mother, under the tutorship of Rev. William Leechman, afterwards professor of divinity in, and eventually by his influence promoted to be principal of, Glasgow University. He then studied law at Edinburgh and Leyden, and travelled during 1741 in France and Holland. Returning to Scotland in November 1742, he was elected member of parliament for Renfrewshire, a seat which he held without opposition during three parliaments till 1761, when he was appointed a baron of the Scots exchequer. He spoke rarely, and attended irregularly, his principal interest lying in the direction of agricultural improvements, upon which he became an acknowledged authority. He is principally known as the friend of Lord Bute [see Stuart, John, third Earl of Bute], and of David Hume. Through the services that he rendered to the former in connection with the management of the Bute estates he became his intimate friend and trusted adviser, and rising with his fortunes was eventually one of the most influential men in Scotland in regard to the management of its local affairs and distribution of Scottish patronage. Of Hume he was at the same time one of the oldest and most valued friends, and from 1742 onwards their letters are numerous. Mure's house at Abbey hill, near Holyrood, was one of Hume's favourite resorts. Apropos of his history Hume wrote Mure in 1756: 'If you do not say that I have done both parties justice, and if Mrs. Mure be not sorry for poor King Charles, I shall burn all my papers and return to philosophy.' Mure was well known in Scottish literary society, and published privately a couple of tracts on political economy. In 1764 and 1765 he was lord rector of Glasgow University, and was again put in nomination for that post in 1776, but was defeated. He died at Caldwell on 25 March 1776 of gout in the stomach. He married Anne, daughter of James Graham, lord Easdale, a judge of
